3-series E36 ignition Barrell advice please!

[davy9449]

Can anybody help me out here. I need to get the ignition barrell out of the car and I've heard it's easy enough, if you poke a piece of wire into a hole underneath it should just pull out! Is this right, if so, can anyone give me a clue where it is pls? Also any piccies would be very useful.

PS. No sarcy jokes about not finding the right hole, OK!

[blackspider]

davy9449 said:

Can anybody help me out here. I need to get the ignition barrell out of the car and I've heard it's easy enough, if you poke a piece of wire into a hole underneath it should just pull out! Is this right, if so, can anyone give me a clue where it is pls? Also any piccies would be very useful.

PS. No sarcy jokes about not finding the right hole, OK!

Where you put the ignition key you will see a tiny hole,between the centre barrel and outer black piece-you need a piece of wire thin enough to go into it but it needs to be strong enough to push in without bending over-drill bits tend not to work.The tool we use is made of aluminium
Once you found a piece turn the ignition to position 1/R feed the wire in and with a little push with the wire it should just pop out.
If the barrel has failed and you cant turn the key to P1 then its going to be drilling and hacking to get the barrel centre out-you may also need a steering lock as more often than not the lock pin breaks.This method takes a few hours

[davy9449]

Thanks very much mate. Much appreciated. I'll give it a whirl - need some wire first I think!

CHEERS